A Bipolar Thanksgiving

Surprise! I totally didn't use any of the Christmas headers I had you vote on. Consider this a monarchy. 
All credit for the title of this blog post goes to my sis-in-law Jenessa. She is witty, and I love her to pieces.
Last week I went to Dawson's school to enjoy his classroom Thanksgiving day feast. 

2nd grade girls are enamored with toddlers and Evan was no exception. The girls in Dawson's class fawned all over him and Evan appreciated the attention so I left him in their care and ran a few errands. Dawson played the role of big brother very well and allowed Evan to sit on his lap during the presentation of the meal before they were to eat. They seem a bit bored with the presentation don't they? I believe this was during the making of the friendship salad, and really, they just wanted to get to the part where they actually eat.

After the food was consumed, the students grabbed their journals and were asked to read the page(s) they wrote listing the things they are thankful for:

Just in case you took the time to watch that video, it's my hope that my son was able to inspire you to gratefulness. Specifically for God, candy and pizza.

I'm thankful that Dawson has such a great sense of humor and personality. We are currently taking orders for "Dawson Robot" a creation by Dawson that is being patented so don't even think of stealing the idea.

Evan is not in school, and therefore he had no class Thanksgiving feast to attend. He did this instead:

This has nothing to do with Thanksgiving but we had been wanting to update Evan's room a bit so that it was a bit less "nursery room" looking. Jason had the genius idea to look for wall decals at Target a few days ago. He found construction decals and Jason decorated his room that very night, then he surprised Evan with the finished product:

A few pictures of his room.

Finally, we've come to the point in this post where I talk about Thanksgiving. 

It was officially decided about 23 different times that we would have Thanksgiving at our house. Until it was officially decided about 24 times that Thanksgiving would be held at Jenessa and Steve's house. That was the officially official final decision. I was fine with that decision because I don't have fine china. Are paper plates considered to be fine china if I were to decorate them? Because I would totally do that and get a hutch to keep them in. Keep me posted if anyone finds a paper plate gravy boat for sale on ebay. It must be unadorned, however, so that I can decorate it to match my other fine china.

Jenessa and Steve have a beautiful new house. We were happy to celebrate food with family and we decided to let the kids eat first.

Adults are a lot less picky. I'd just like to point that out.

In the meantime I was receiving texts from my family who were scattered all over the world the U.S. for Thanksgiving.

My sister Bobbie was in Florida. The rest of my family was in Indiana...

And of course I was in Colorado. At Steve and Jenessa's house to be precise.

Would everyone take a minute to text my family and ask them to move here? Thank you.

It takes nearly 25 hours to prepare for Thanksgiving, about 10 minutes to eat and then the rest of the day you get to relax. Which is what we did. Evan somehow managed to sucker the family into watching Mighty Machines.

I managed to snap a picture of my foot. Yes, you're granted permission to frame it and hang it over your mantle for Christmas.

I'm feeling rather comatose today and nothing clever is coming to mind. So I'm going to end this post with a picture of the puzzle that Dawson and I just completed. It's not glow-in-the-dark like the one we did last year. But it was half off at Hobby Lobby. So. 

I love family.

The Vote

The most wonderful time of the year is Christmas. We won't be voting on that, because I'm stating it as a fact that will go uncontested considering that this is my blog and I'm allowed to declare things.
I have been inundated with all manner of propaganda in regards to whom I should vote for in this upcoming election and why. From television to junk mail, to people physically walking to my house with a clipboard and ringing my doorbell (I run upstairs and hide until they go away, because it's the most sensible thing to do) -voting, is in the air. 
So in the spirit of voting, and Christmas-which is the most wonderful time of the year, as I just declared- I'm asking you to vote. 
Not for a person, just relax.
Although I will take a moment to say that as I was filling out my ballot the other evening, I spent nearly 45 minutes trying to make an informed decision on Colorado judges by going to a website that listed each judge by name and gave a clear and unbiased statement based on lawyers and civilians on whether or not the judge should be retained. I do believe that merits something more than just an "I voted" sticker, don't you? Unless the sticker is 24 carat gold.
That being said.
I have created several holiday headers for the blog. And I'd just like an opinion on which one is your favorite, and therefore should be used as my holiday blog header. The winner will be posted the day after Thanksgiving because we all know that is the tradition in my home for decorating.
And without further nonsensical rambling, I present to you, header #1:

1. 

 Header #2:

2.

Header #3:

3.

Header #4:

4. 

If I don't receive comments within the next 5 minutes, I will be demanding that you vote by hijacking your tv with all manner of commercials, invading your mail, showing up in ads on FaceBook and coming to your home with a clipboard.

Thanks for voting!

The Neighbors

Every year since we moved to our little cul-de-sac, we have had a block party. This is how we became good friends with several of our neighbors. 

 The party is always on a Sunday in August and starts at noon. We put out tents to cover our food and set up games for us and the kids.

Last year is the first year I actually took pictures at our block party and looking back on it, everyone seems so much younger.

 

 This is Mark & Jaque. They are to our immediate left and they are also the neighbors who stuck the for sale sign in our yard while we were away on vacation. Don't let their innocent/sweet smiles fool you. Every few weeks, we have "Happy Hour" with these neighbors and...

 Dave & Jodie. (the other happy hour neighbors).  Dave & Jodie were gone on vacation the same week that we were, and also had a for sale sign in their yard thanks to the 

 The  Neighbors a few houses down, Greg & Christie have a son named Zach who is a few years older than Dawson. They play on the trampoline at George & Jane's house, the neighbors to our immediate right. 

 This is Jane on the right who has the trampoline. Jess is the neighbor who owns the Jeep you see in the background. She and her husband Eric have Gabe who is six months older than Evan but we don't see them that often, they are busy. But they love corn hole!

Christie's husband Greg, and Jess's husband Eric. I actually kicked both butts this year at corn hole. Not that I want to brag. Yes, I want to brag.

 You can see my neighbor Carol holding her granddaughter Katelyn. Katelyn is only 2 weeks younger than Evan. A marriage has not been arranged at this point. Carol and I try to get together at least once a week -she will usually come to my house for coffee, or we will go shopping at Goodwill or the Arc. I love her to pieces. 

 I'm throwing this picture in because my hair doesn't look this way any more.

 Katelyn and Evan get along when they're not fighting.

 The kids all play on the slip n slide and us parents rarely see the kids until the day is finally over and we've all cleaned up and gone inside. Not that we complain.

 Sometimes Jason thinks he's king of corn hole, but we really know that I am. 

 I would like to take the time to mention that this neighborly love is a night and day difference from the neighborhood we lived in back in Indiana. One sold steak from a truck. Another one flashed a strobe light in his window at all hours of the day in order to perturb another neighbor he didn't like. Another neighbor rode his 4-wheeler in our back yard right outside of Dawson's room at 2:00 in the morning while drunk and when Jason went outside to tell him that it was not okay to be doing that, the guy was filming himself and said "hey, dude, you'll be on youtube". That is dysfunction people. 

As a result of the friendships we've made with some of our neighbors, we have actually gone places with them. GASP! 

But before I can get to that, I have to show you this picture of Evan. I recently found Dawson's old plastic potty training underwear...

 

 Mark and Jaque are Catholic and they invited us and Dave and Jodie to a wine tasting they were having at their church carnival. 

 I have never, ever been to a wine tasting before and I typically despise the taste of wine, as long as it's red or white and smells like wet dog.

But Jason and I went along anyway, because we enjoy these neighbors.

 Dave and Jodie are wine connoisseurs. They swish and savor and all that crap when they drink wine. So they had quite the experience when they discovered that I'm basically anti-wine and there was a lot of spitting involved on my part. As you can see at the bottom of this picture, Jason and I bought a fruit and cheese plate to go along with our wine, so that people would assume we are fancy and not redneck.

 I made Jodie take the picture again because usually by picture number 54 I look less dorky.

 Dawson was with Dave & Jodie's daughter Brooke. They got a wrist band that allowed them unlimited access to all the rides at the carnival. Poor Evan was stuck with us. 

 But we took him to ride a few things.

 Dawson has no fear and will most likely grow up and live at Cedar Point.

As our wine tasting/carnival riding day came to a close, I did find myself enjoying the taste of one wine (which I found out during the course of the taste that I was not supposed to describe the wines I tasted with words like "crap" or "eww!" but rather, I should simply put a smiley face :) or a frown :(. One particular wine was called something or other "Moscato" and was sweet as fruit juice. So it passed.

I'm thankful for friendly neighbors.

And for Moscato.